Carb out a six-pack

Like crispy roasties? Us too, which is why we're bemoaning the Food Standards Agency's latest decree. Browned toast and burned roast potatoes are now a cancer risk (along with most other fun things) but it doesn't have to mean the end of your love affair with white carbs. We've got 5 ways to supercharge your comfort food habits and ensure you can still carb away with impunity.

Indulging in a buttery spud is like bomb disposal: timing is everything. Forget the ‘no carbs after 8pm’ rule. Starchy foods help your body maximise supplies of serotonin. The mood-booster helps you sleepand a good night's kip helps increase your metabolism found the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Or take your carbs within 30 minutes of an intense gym session. Potatoes provide vitamin C and electrolytes such as potassium, which you need to restock your muscles' glycogen stores, says Pearson. Leave the skin on for a bonus nutritional benefit.

Burn 23% more fat with comfort food

Placate your carb-hungry taste buds with beans on toast, MH-style. A tin of haricots, mixed with chopped tomatoes and a splash of Tabasco, gives your body over 30g of ‘resistant starch’. This carb isn't digested in the small intestine, so it makes you feel fuller, says food scientist Gary Frost of Imperial College, London. Research in the journal Nutrition and Metabolism found resistant starch helps you burn 23% more fat. You can buy it in powdered form (£17,vitaminsuk.com) to add to smoothies, or find it in bananas or cold pasta.

Fight sugar cravings with a cooling-off period

If anyone tells you to cut out white spuds in order to lose weight, it's half-baked advice. Instead, knock up a potato salad. Cooling your potatoes before eating them increases their levels of resistant starch and lowers their glycaemic index. "Eating low-GI foods will combat energy lulls and minimise fat storage," says fitness coach Liz Fulford. The same can be achieved by cooking your pasta al dente, so it has more bite. To lower the GI of your spuds even further, dress them with vinaigrette. Whisk together 4tbsp olive oil, 1tbsp balsamic and 1tsp Dijon mustard. Swedish researchers found that cold potatoes dressed with vinegar cause the smallest blood sugar spike, slashing food cravings. Satisfying news.

Gorge on white rice, guilt-free

Fluffy rice is another nutritional vice you can enjoy with the right tweaks. A study in the journal Nutrition found that mixing white rice with beans, Jamaican style, helps blunt their fat-producing spike in insulin. Pinto, black or kidney beans have the best belly-shrinking effect. And if you find yourself stranded in the curry house staring down a chicken tikka masala, order long-grain basmati on the side. It has a GI of 57, around the same as the athlete’s choice of brown rice. Balti Towers it is.

Use your loaf to cut calories

White bread is the malevolent king of fast-acting carbs. Some loaves score as much as 100 on the glycaemic index. But there are alternatives that let you have your BLT and eat it. Linseed and soy bread comes in under 55 on the index, while just two slices of flaxseed bread will dish up almost half of your fibre RDA. And switch butter for mashed up avocado: research found that people who stock up on monounsaturated fats like those in the vegetable are more likely to keep weight off long-term. The bacon sandwich just got tastier and better for you.

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